l75eya

This is an awesome write-up. Must have taken some time to write it all up and edit the pictures and what-not. Looks like you went about it in a very organized manner. When I do attempt this myself, I will positively be following this. Thanks for taking the time to make this! Should wind up helping lots of peeps.

Got it out! I let my anger get the best of the hammer and the pickle fork and after some very agressive swinging, it finally popped out. So today I got the tie rod and tie rod end installed on the passanger side, and the ball joint. I was having trouble with the strut, probably because I have some crappy cheap spring compressor, and I don't have a vice, so it was very difficult to get good leverage on the whole thing. Because it's already removed from the car, I think I'm just going to take the strut assembly to a garage tomorrow and see if they'll remove the spring for me and switch it over to the new shock, and then i'll do the same for the driver's side when I'm at that point. Was hoping to not have to go to a shop for any part of the job, but having the right tool is what it's all about, and I just don't. =\ Oh well. More fun tomorrow! Thanks for the tips/ideas/links Any future search references, pickle fork seems to be the best way to get the ball joint out. It may seem like it's not working but you gotta make sure you wedge it from various angles. Hammer the pickle fork on one side, wrangle it around a bit, then remove it and hammer it back in on the opposite side, then from the front. Gotta work that fork, yo.

See that's the issue I'm having with the ball joint press tool I borrowed from a buddy (The big rump roast clamp style) All of the spacers don't sit flush on the control arm, and only one of them (the largest) rises up high enough to give the ball joint some clearance to move upward. The issue is that the stud (and the joint itself in that respect) is at a slight angle and it's causing me a ton of issues. Maybe I'll take a look at a tie rod end puller and RV; I was putting everything I had into hammering the pickle fork in there, and it didn't do a damn thing the rubber boot is ...gone. That's all I accomplished.

Gonna head out to autozone and see if they have a suitable puller I can grab. HOPEFULLY that works. If not I'll try out what I saw in the youtube video, I hate to put the knuckle all back together before I've gotten it out, but we'll see. Thanks for the help guys, mucho appreciate. wish me luck

Okay so there's nothing I'm missing though, right? It's just stuck more than a ...well....it's stuck? Like I said, it's already out of the steering knuckle, the stud is still going thru the control arm and through everything I've done so far (Pickle fork, torches, hammer, and chickens) judging by the hole for the castellated nut...it doesn't look like I've gotten it to move up through the control arm at *all*. Tie rods are done. Those were easy. Ball joint is PISSING ME OFF lol

Thanks Jim! This thing is starting to piss me off, it just WILL NOT pop out from the control arm. Every post I've seen talks about how it's such a P.I.T.A to get it loose from the knuckle, that was a bit difficult, but that's out already. I just can't get the stud to pop out of the control arm. Thanks for those links though, there is some good advice in there.

Can't seem to get that sucker out. Does I really have to remove the control arm and bring it to a shop to get the balljoint out of it, or does somebody know a trick? Gonna look through the FSM and my Haynes, I would have done that first before asking, but the car is all torn apart now and so..i'm looking for a (hoping for a) SWIFT solution. Woosh! haha thanks ahead of time Car is a FWD Loyale btw.

And now I would like to introduce Benjamin J. Hooptie. Or, Ben! This is Ben as we got him. Matter of fact this is Ben still sitting on the car dealership's lot in central NJ *before* we got him. This is the first Subaru GL series I ever saw. Didn't even know what they were until I saw Ben. I remember thinking when I saw the craigslist picture "Damn..that's an ugly car..." but needless to say it grew on me so much I went out and got my own (Margaret). Ben is a FWD 3AT. He had 52,000 miles when we got him, and he spent most of his life at the hands of an Asian gentleman in the Bronx. This is Ben today: Ben was in pristine condition when we got him. I picked him out for the girlfriend as her first car for a couple of reasons. *He had a long hood and a long trunk and was flat and angular. Her being a new driver, I wanted her to have good visibility out of the car and I wanted her to be able to actually see where the corners of the car were. Sitting in the driver's seat, you can see the end of each fender, and the end of the back of the car as well. I thought this would make it much easier for her to get used to judging where she was on the road with the car and how close she was to objects, etc. *He is a Subaru. Subaru = reliability. At least to me at the time that meant *any* subaru. I only found out later on that the EA82 was not a particularly super reliable engine. *Gas milage. This was another misconception by me. I counted on it getting 30 + MPG on the highway, which is what he was going to be operated on mainly. When driving the car home, and hopping on the highway I got up to speed and immediately thought why the f* is it not shifting? Didn't know anything about it only being a 3 speed at the time, and thus a bit of a chugger on the highway. He routinely gets about 25 mpg highway, so not *too* bad. *I knew he was going to be a beater. First time driver, he's the stepping stone to her next car and at the end of his tenure I know he's going to be bruised and scraped and dented and whatnot. I did not know however that we were going to fall in love with him (and his brethren/sistren) or that she was going to run into a utility pole a week after getting him. :-p For some reason, I never thought to take a picture of the damage before he was all torn apart but the collision with the utility pole (some animal darted in front of her on her school campus and she swerved and into the pole she went. She was unharmed) broke the bumper, mangled the driver's side fender, bent the hood, shattered the headlight and marker light and turn signal, and cracked the windshield (hood pushed into it). Had to go 350 miles west to Holidaysburg P.A. to source parts: Got the headlight, bumper, turn signal and marker light from this guy. He was a 4 wheel drive Loyale. His hood was gone and his fenders were rusted out, so the hood and fender came from a white Subaru RX (that I knew nothing about at the time) that was to his right. The RX was in nice shape. In retrospect, really wish I'd grabbed more parts off that thing, as I got all this stuff at the junkyard for 50 bucks. Or at least taken a picture of it before I pulled the hood and fender off. So after using a come-along chained to a superduty F350 Ben got straightened out and now looked like this: He remained that way until just a couple of months ago when he rear-ended a Honda Accord off center. That's the damage in the first picture. He's had quite a life, but he's still putting along and remains very well maintained at 85,000 miles currently. He's had religious 3k oil changes using only mobil 1 dino-oil and filters, new timing belts and tensioners, water pump and oil pump and right before the honda accident he was tuned up with NGK plugs and wires, distributor cap, fuel filter, rotor, fresh timing, and I'm sure more that I can't think of. He is scheduled for front end maintainence that I think I will be starting tomorrow with KYB shocks and moog ball joints, tie rods and tie rod ends. His frame is bent from the Honda accident, however, so until the money starts becoming available for Margaret the GL, he is going to stick around. His days are becoming numbered though, unfortunately. When the GL starts getting fixed, I have a feeling that the engine is getting pulled out of Ben, as well as all the front end components that are going in shortly, and he will be junked. Not looking forward to that, we really love this guy. He's taken us to Canada and back. Thanks for checking out Ben!

She is very low milage, she is a little bit rusty, and she needs some TLC, but she has a good bit of potential, I believe. Got her on Ebay from a dealership in Pennsylvania. I am technically the 4th owner of the car, but in actuality I am the 2nd owner (the other 2 owners only being the dealers the car went through before it got to me). Car had 46,640 miles on it when I picked it up in April of 2011. currently has 57,412 Interior is in decent shape. There are a couple of cigarette burns in the seats, so that sucks, but for the most part the interior is nice. Just from the way the car rusted, you can tell it sat unused and exposed to the elemnts through the winters. It spent 9/10ths of it's life on Staten Island. Places where snow would sit longest are the spots where she is rusted most (next to the windshield wipers around the windshield, and above the trunk around the rear window). Most recent ODO shot. Wish I had a shot of the engine right when I got the car. It was very clean in here. This is what it looks like after driving across the country and in the desert. you can see the Rusty Jones coating around the firewall. Didn't work too well for the rest of the car haha. Here Margaret is rolling over 50,000 on the way to Nevada from NJ. This is how Margaret went across the country. Photo taken in Reno, NV now loaded with just a little bit more weight in supplies before heading out into the desert. Rears weighted down pretty bad... Fronts riding real high.. And out in to the desert. What your vehicle looks like after being out in the desert for a week. She's just sitting now. Had to replace the water-pump after getting back from NV, but the driver's side wheel bearing is going ( I think the whole knuckle has to be replaced) and, well all that weight carried across the country and back completely destroyed my rear suspension so the car is now very dangerous to drive. Will get her back on the road when money get together, but for now, Ben, our 93 Loyale is the DD and I'm on to make his thread next. Thanks for checking out Maggie!

Nice wagon! Love those H rims. Throwing SPFI pistons into the carbed engine ups the compression?

Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Thanks for that, mental note taken. Hey original poster! Ignore this guy right here *points at self* .. Nothing to see here. Carry on

gonna shoot you a PM Thanks!

Actually, I'm pretty sure that it should be in 2WD all the time, except for when you push in the button to actuate the 4wd. I'm 99 percent sure you don't have an all-wheel drive Loyale. It's an automatic? There should be a red button on the side of the shifter. When you push it in, that engages the 4WD. when it's not pushed in, it's 2 wheel drive. Do not drive with your car in 4 wheel drive unless you are in mud or snow or saturated wet roads. If you drive in 4WD on dry pavement, you are going to break something. If I'm mistaken and this IS an all-wheel drive Loyale then disregard what I said, and the above poster's response applies.

You are the man. Would the mirrors be asking for too much? :cool:

Hey just noticed; what's with the door mounted mirror? Was that normal for these generation GL's? I know that my 87 GL has the mirrors mounted up by the door glass the same as the 93 Loyale, and I know I've seen the ea81 series GL's with the mirrors mounted on the door itself, but I don't think I've ever seen an ea82 body car with the mirrors like that. Kinda like the way it looks, shame the driver's side mirror is missing or I might have been interested in grabbing *those* =\ Ooo! also just noticed. No A/C! When you're about to send it on it's way, do you think you could grab the alternator bracket? That sould enable me to ditch my A/C compressor. Unless you want it for yourself of course.

Wow! He looks great! Name yet? About the stereo, if it has a lead for illuminating the lights, maybe just disconnect it. Just a thought. That's a charming little car. :cool:

Damn, shame that thing got so beat up. Had the luggage rack too. (The low style. STILL have never seen the other style luggage rack Appreciate your offer on the caps, but I don't think it'd be worth the shipping. Looks like the guy had some hard, rough fun with this thing. I hate seeing them knowing they're gonna go to a crusher. Just wish I could save all of them haha, first the GL-10 in the classifieds in upstate NY, and now this poor thing. I'm digging the brown interior too. Oh well. C'est la vie. Hope somebody gets some use out of! Noticed you ripped the grill out already hahaha good luck with it's future

Nice rims! Bummer about the grill but I don't blame you. Honeycomb grill is nice! You sure you were "given" this car? =P Just messing with you lol if there's money in the trunk when you get it open, I'm going to be a little more curious =P Either way, thanks for the offer on the caps. See if you can't throw up some more pics! I always liked how these ea82's look in red.

Haha, he's gonna wake up in the morning and pull a "Dude....where's my car?" Is it carbed? If you don't keep it, can I have the grill and the hub-caps? =P haha

Haha! yeah, it's like that here too. The roads in northern NJ, in the cities, are absolutely horrible. Jersey City and Hoboken being the worst. Part of the reason why the whole front end is done on the Loyale after only 30,000 miles around here and the reason why the shocks/struts on my father's 05 Taurus are already destroyed (25,000 on them).

I hate listening to you guys with lenient inspection laws I shouldn't complain too much though, at least now all Jersey wants is for your vehicle to pass emissions. Doesn't matter if you have no windshield, as long as it passes emissions it gets a sticker. And that's the one thing my car will not pass

Yeah, you strip that bolt out..you won't be happy.

Be sure to take part in a PETA parade if possible if you go through with your plans haha

And your water pump will not like it.

Bravo, and I agree. They are fantastic vehicles. Mine was, well, my first car and somebody else's first car before that. It was pretty beat up and the kid who had it before me riced out the interior (all bright blue paint on the plastic. Repainted that all black) but the thing ran great. Had to retire it when the head warped from overheating on a no shoulder highway =( She had just clicked over 200,000 miles.